CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1907, Page 13

CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

A REMARKABLE SUICIDE. Tlie Paris correspondent of the '"Chronicle* reports that an •unknown man committed suicide in an extraordinary way near Chaxtres. Uonnting a bridge winch spans tbe railway line, Just at the moment when. the Paris express was approaching, he dived off, presumably with the intention of throwing himself under the wheels of the train. He miscalculated the distance and the speed of the train, for, instead of falli ins on the line In front, he struck the locoj motive, and rebounded then into the cab j of the engine, falling on top of the fireI man. Re was killed outright, his neck I and several ribs being broken by the imI pact. The fireman, was seriously injured. FIGHT WITH BA>TDrT. A telegram from Lubin states that the [ police came upon a notorious bandit named | Stanilas Lis, in the suburb of Slavinck. i Lis escaped into a neighbouring smithy and ordered the blacksmith and is family to leave. He then locked the door and fired on the police, killing one and wounding another. The police thereupon summoned troops to the spot, and two companies of infantry surrounded the smithy. The bandit stubbornly repiitd to the fire, and being unable to compel him to surrender, the troops brought up a quick-firing gun and | fired eight shells at the house, which was , demolished. The infantry then stormed tbe I ruins, where they found li-lm mortaliy ! wounded. He was armed with a revolver . and 100 cartridges. I — \ NO MARRIAGE BY PROSY, j The South American mail steamer from I Hamburg recently car-icd to far-oS" Peru. i Lady -sell known in B-rlin society, who i& travelling half-way round the world to get married, because the law does cot permit her to wed by proxy in Germany. Her I future husband Is a young German engineer in Pern. For propriety's sake —not wishing to ] incur the cost of a journey home—he j wanted to welcome bis sweetheart in Peru I as his wife, and not as his betrothed To j that end. he induced the local German i Ccnsnl-Generai to execute an official certii ficate attesting that the engineer conferred upon his brother-in-law. living in Berlin, authority to marry his fiancee In his name. j The girl went to a registrar's office, j armed jointly with the Consul-General's ceri tificate and her Intended's understudy. The unsentimental officials, however, looked up the records, and. finding no precedent for marriage by proxy, solemnly gave it as their opinion that German bridegrooms have no authority for leaving to other men the utterance of the fateful words on their behalf. THE DEATH SLIDE. Six young Swiss Alpinists set oat. without a guide, to climb.the Speer (8000 feet high) on Saturday. April 20. They reached ' the summit early on Sunday morning, and I aftpr a short rest began tbe descent. Six- \ teen hundred feet down thry came to a difficult and dangerous stretch. j The two best climbers. Aegerter and Kaiser, telling their less-experienced com- ! paniocs to wait, as the place was really j dangerous, went ahead to seek a path. j They were soon lost to view, but at short intervals shouted to their comrades that all was welL The latter replied with, encouraging cries. The watchers were suddenly aerified by the sound ~bf falling earth and stones ahead of them. They shouted together. Back to them came a faint cry of "Don't try ' j this way," and then, louder and louder, ■ \ the rustle and thud of sliding soil and rock. • ' They called again and again, but only ' echoes answered. Convinced that disaster had occurred they ! retraced their steps up the mountain, and ; ] descended by anotber route. Long and ' I dangerous search brought them at last to 1 the bodies of their vaaiehed comrades. : They lay close together, their skulls smashed in, 350 feet below the spot whence they I had disappeared. , BANDIT JOURNALIST CAUGHT, Salomone, a Sicilian bandit, who was > contributing his memoirs to the -Giornale . di Sicilia," has been captured The brigand owes his calamity to his II journalistic aspirations, for it was while , , posting his weekly batch of copy that he . i was run to earth by a flying squadron of , j Royal Carablnieri. . I Philosophically considering that It was ; j better to surrender than be shot dead, he wisely made no resistance, and was taken • of to the barracks. i j On the way Salomone bitterly lamented - | that his professional career, extending over ' , a period of upwards of a quarter of a cenl tnry. was thus cut short, jnsr when its • vindictive phase was fully satiated. 1 • WrFE-MURDEREE GOES FBOM THE DOCK TO HIS vTCTTArS GRAVE. A curious murder case was tried iv Paris on April 24th, when M. Michael Gouge, . described as an engineer's assistant, was . indicted for the wilful murder of his wife . The plea of justification resulted in his , acqu'traL ; Shortly after his wedding two years ago . M. Gouge's wife renewed an undesirable . acquaintance with an attache at the Ger many Embassy. After a violent seen* she . disappeared Two months later her'husband found her among low company = n e , attempted suicide .-by poison, and was . nursed back to health in a hospital On July 22 last year she suddenly di- s- . sence of Her husband and the nurse. He sence of her husband and the nurse The husband traced her and found her in a cab. After a violent dispute he shot her i dead- 9 M. Gouge left the Court after the vPrdho, not guilty had been returned, and drove" to the cemetery, where he deposited a wreath upon his erring wife's grave. ABSCONDER DDPES ROME'S CRACY. An absconding Bohemian bank clerk who stole £40,000 from a bank at Mikowita same months ago. was discovered in April posing as Prince Vladimir Kiohocinsky who. with the "princess." a beautiful wol man, has been a prominent figure in Rome since the beginning of the ye»r. The "prince" arrived in Rome in Jannary, put up at oir> of the best hotels, and frequented the highest society. The "princess's'" splendid jewels and the "prince's" brilliant' manners evoked General admiration. Most of the best houses were open to the pair, wlwn at the end of March they suddenly disappeared A few days later a telegram from Frascati announced the arrest of the "prince"— who in Bohemia was plain Karl Wenze! at the best hotel. With his wife he had been making a series of motor ear exenrsions in. the loweiy country sarroanding the tO-WB, i

He and the "princess" were quietly hmcaing. when, the captain of de Carahi- ! nieri. stationed at Frascati strode into tha room, tapped him on tHe shoulder, and showed Mm a warrant for his arrest. The "prince" was furious, and threatened the intervention ot the Russian Embassy. The "princess" went into hysterics and was borne shrieking from the room, while a doctor was summoned. Her husband agreed to submit, trot insisted on seeing his wife before he left the building. Tie lady recovered «niraculously whai the "prince" spoke hurriedly in German, which the Italian officials did not understand. It is believed that he gave her instructions for the disposal of what remains of his booty. The detective who traced -Wenzel and identified him as the "prince"' will receive the reward of £200 offered for his detection by the bani at iliiowitz.